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Head to head: Nokia Lumia 620/625 vs Motorola Moto G

It's... another head to head, sparked off by the arrival at All About Towers of the Motorola Moto G, the company's astonishingly good value new Android mid-ranger. Bringing to mind Nokia's own offerings in the same space, the long established Lumia 620 and the newer and larger Lumia 625. The prices and target markets match exactly, but what exactly are the pros and cons and is there an overall winner? Has Windows Phone just got itself a big competitor to one of its budget stalwarts?

The Lumia 620 is older and well known, of course, always a super value Windows Phone, especially on pay-as-you-go around the world - as with the 625, plenty of gadgets and few compromises made in its hardware in getting down to this price point (see our review):

The Moto G is a brand new smartphone, announced only last week, with very '2013' specifications in terms of form factor and screen (and platform). Reviewed by me here (external link), here's the review unit (though note that the backs are replaceable, there are over a dozen options available to swap around - the front's always black, only the back changes colour):

Head to head then. As usual, I pick out winning categories in green, for interest sake - though don't take these too seriously. And note that many categories simply don't HAVE a winner, either because the differences are subjective or because the two are roughly equal overall:

Also decent speaker (why do the cheaper phone often have the best speakers? - discuss!), 3.5mm output

Gaming

Plenty of decent games for Windows Phone 8, though not all run on the 512MB RAM devices like this. Still, plenty for the casual user.

A bigger games catalog to choose from. Almost all Android games will run.

Navigation

Nokia's HERE Maps/Drive suite is unrivalled, with the offline routing and maps. Plus good public transport advice and innovative 'live sight' functions.

Google Navigation is very comprehensive, but aside from limited caching of small areas, struggles mightily when out of data coverage.

Battery, life

Replaceable(!!) 1300mAh battery, two days average use [2000mAh, sealed, on the Lumia 625, despite the removeable back]

Sealed 2070mAh [despite the removeable back], one day average use

Applications and ecosystem

Windows Phone now has just about every mainstream app and service covered, with great strides in the last month or two. Niche/boutique apps are sometimes an issue if you're being picky. Also anything to do with Google services!

Android's Play Store is very fully stocked, second only to the iPhone Store for depth. Everything mainstream is here, plus some boutique/niche apps.

Upgrades and future

Nokia Amber was the last update, a few months ago. Nokia Black is scheduled to hit the 620 in the next couple of months, bringing quite a few extras, including Bluetooth LE support. I'd suggest that Black will be the last major update for this device though.

Scheduled to get Android 4.4 in the next month or so. And I'd guess there's a fighting chance of 4.5 or 5.0, seeing as Google owns Motorola.

It's utterly telling that quite a few table rows had no advantage for one device over the other. Despite almost a year's gap in time (from launch) between the Lumia 620, the Lumia 625 and the Moto G, the devices really are incredibly closely matched. Even the 'green' wins tally was equal, at three.

Up until now, if a friend or relative was to ask which was the best smartphone they could buy without it costing an arm or a leg, almost any phone geek would point (whatever their thoughts on Windows Phone) towards the Lumia 520 and 620 as utter bargains at £80 and £130 respectively, or the Lumia 625 more recently as its price came down into the same range. The fluidity and functionality of each was simply unbeatable by anything in the Android world at the same price points.

With the arrival of the Moto G, the Lumia 620 and 625 have arguably met their match. Each device could be recommended to someone with just over a hundred pounds to spend on a pay-as-you-go handset without fear that the recipient would be disappointed.

The differentiators here (such as they are), are either Nokia's expansion (for people wanting to bring a long a lot of offline music) and the Lumia 620's replaceable battery (something often prized by those buying away from the world of change-every-year Silicon Valley flagships). On the Moto G's side, it's Android - which means staying compatible with the ecosystem that 80% or so of the mobile world currently uses.

Your call then, which of the above devices stands out to you?

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PS. It's worth noting that the Lumia 520 (mentioned in passing above and pictured below) remains apart from this battle, offering nearly all (no LED flash, no CBD screen, no NFC, no front facing camera) of the Lumia 620's features at well under £100, sometimes seen as low as £80 on pay-as-you-go**, on special offer. Now that is a bargain.

** prices for pay-as-you-go handsets are comparatively volatile, at least in the UK, depending on which offers and tariffs are being pushed by each network. I've seen the Lumia 520 as low as £79.99 and the 620 as low as £119.99, but as usual if you want the best price then you'll have to do some research and (maybe) have a little patience!